Why's flesh (⺼ ) the semantic component for 肩, 脖?

Question

I know that 脖 (neck) and 肩 (shoulder) contains flesh, but they aren't the fleshiest, most sarcous or adipose, unlike the butt.

1. If CUHK is proclaiming that 肩 resembles a shoulder, I can't see the resemblance.

2. I also don't understand how the shoulder can be "the body's gate". Yellowbridge

3. CUHK and Yellowbridge don't expound 脖.

Answer 1

If CUHK is proclaiming that 肩 resembles a shoulder, I can't see the resemblance.

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甲

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甲

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合集13917商
甲

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合集4786商
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甲759
合集35191

The top left of 「肩」 was originally a picture of the shoulder bone (scapula), most easily illustrated with those used in oracle bone divination from oxen:

(Left) Oracle bone from the Shanghai Museum*. (Right) Binary image of this oracle bone given in 《甲骨文合集》32028.

_{*Credits to Herr Klugbeisser, CC BY-SA 3.0, original photo at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone#/media/File:Orakelknochen.JPG.}

Later on, the character became more stylised and abstract. 「肉」 (flesh > body part) was added, perhaps to enhance character recognition of what might otherwise highly resemble 「戶」 or 「耳」.

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日甲75背
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隸定


　

The bone-shape was later firmly corrupted into 「戶」.

東漢
隸

武梁祠畫象
　
楷


　

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References:

• 季旭昇《說文新證》
• 小學堂
• 國學大師
  • 郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
  • 中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》

Answer 2

Outlier has an entry for 肩 that states:

⺼ “meat; body part”

It isn't about how meaty it is but the fact that it is flesh - part of the body.

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_{^{Yellowbridge's explanations don't generally seem to be correct you might want to consider alternative resources.}}

Answer 3

⺼in Chinese looks like 月(moon) but actually it came from the miswritten "肉(meat)” or "舟(ship)” which seems similar in ancient Chinese font named XiaoZhuan. For the first meaning, there are characters describing real meat (e.g. 脍) or body part(e.g. 脸，肩，胸，臂，膀，胯，腿，脚）or organ（e.g. 肝，脾，胃，胆，肾）.